§ 1. (General Survey, Sec. 1.) What is law.

Case 1. Holland, Jurisprudence, page 41.

"By a successive narrowing of the rules for human action, we have at length arrived at such of those rules as are laws. A law in the proper sense of the term, is therefore a general rule of human action, taking cognizance only of external acts, enforced by a determinate authority which authority is human, and, among human authorities is that which is paramount in a political society.

"More briefly, a general rule of external human action enforced by sovereign political authority.

"All other rules for guidance of human action are called laws merely by analogy; and any propositions which are not rules for human action are called laws by metaphor only."

Question 1: There are said to be "physical laws"; "divine laws"; "laws of morality"; "political laws"; to which of these phrases do we refer when we say that we are studying law? In what sense only is the word "law" otherwise used? (2) Define "law" in the proper meaning of the term.

(Note to case 1: A law is enforced by "sovereign political authority." The world is composed of organized political groups which we term "sovereignties," "sovereign states," "nations," "governments" or "powers." They are, by hypothesis, politically independent. They organize themselves, and maintain co

hesion and internal peace by mandatory provisions and rules that are described under the name of law. Law, therefore, necessarily emanates from "sovereignty." It may be a rule enforced by a subdivision or dependency of the sovereignty, but it has its ultimate source from the sovereignty itself.

The definition of law so far ignores that which is called "international law" or rules of conduct recognized by sovereignties for their mutual benefit, which, says Holland (page 130) can be described as law "only by courtesy."

The law of a sovereignty or state, is frequently called "muncipal law" or "national law" to distinguish it from the so-called "international law." Whether international law is properly called "law" or not, is a mere matter of definition. Certainly it is not law in the sense that municipal law is law. It has no political superior to declare, construe or enforce it. But it is generally called "law" and is law in the sense that it emanates from and has behind it the moral sanction of political sovereignties. In the restricted and generally used sense law means the law of a sovereign body or its dependencies or subdivisions.

It is with national, or so-called municipal law, only, that we are concerned in this book.)

§2. (General Survey, Sec. 2.) International law.

Case 2. Davis, The Elements of International Law, pages 1 and 2.

"Political laws are also subject to classification according to their source, their authority or scope, and the parties subject to their operation; those which control the relations of citizens to the state and to each other are called 'national' or 'municipal' laws; while those which regulate the intercourse of sovereign states with each other are known as 'international' laws. The parties to the former are the citizens or subjects of a particular state; the parties to the latter are sovereign states (citing Pomeroy, Int. Law, sec. 47-50; Lawrence, Int. Law, sec. 42-55).

"International law, or as it is sometimes called, the 'law of nations,' may therefore be defined as that body of rules and limitations which the sovereign states of the civilized world agree to observe in their intercourse

and relations with each other. The agreement or consent which is essential to the validity of a rule of international law is said to be express, or positive, when it is embodied in treaties, or formal declarations of public policy, or in statutes which are enacted in support or recognition of the accepted usages of nations; it is said to be tacit when it takes the form or conformity to the approved practices of states in their international relations."

Question 2: (1) Define "municipal law"; who are the subjects of municipal law?

(2) What is "international law"? When "express," when "tacit"?

(Note: See Note to Case 1.)

§3. (General Survey, Sec. 3.) National or Municipal Law.

Case 3. Davis, The Elements of International Law, page 2.

"Municipal law may therefore be defined as comprising those rules of human conduct which are established or sanctioned by a state in virtue of its sovereign authority, for the guidance or direction of its citizens or subjects. The municipal law of a state applies, as will subsequently appear, not only to citizens, properly so called, but to all persons whatever their nationality, who come within its territorial limits, as travelers or sojourners

Question 3: Define municipal law. Is its operation confined to citizens?

§ 4. (General Survey, Sec. 4.) Branches of Municipal Law.

Case 4. American Commercial Law, Vol. 1, page 29. "The objects sought to be attained by municipal law by which we may divide it into branches for the purpose of comprehending its character, are as follows:

A. Public Law; or The Law with Whose Objects the State at Large Is Primarily Concerned.

1. Constitutional law.

2. Administrative law.

3. Criminal law and procedure.

B. Private Law, or the Law Provided for the Benefit of the Individual with whose Enforcement the State is not Concerned Except for the Individual's Benefit and at His Instance.

1. The law of obligation of individual to individual. A. The law of contracts.

B. The law of quasi contract,

C. The law of torts.

2. The law of property.

A. The law of tenure.

B. The law of transfer inter vivos

C. The law of descent and wills.

3. The law of status.

4. The law of delegation of authority. 5. The law of business proprietorship.

A. The law of partnerships.

B. The law of corporations.

C. The other forms of business proprietorship.

6. The law of judicial procedure in civil cases.

A. The law of pleading.

B. The law of evidence.

C. The law of judicial procedure generally.

Question 4: What is public law? What are its subdivisions? Private law? Its subdivisions?

(Note to Case 4: This subdivision is given at this point not as a satisfactory and complete outline of different kinds of laws, but to help us gain a viewpoint of the law's objectives. Clearly no law falls entirely in one subdivision. A legislator does not say: "Let us pass a law of torts. A need for a law is felt and it is enacted, or develops under judicial decision. Such law may protect an individual in his right of property, and involve constitutional law, the law of crimes and the law of property.)